


Souvenirs from Oregon

by scullyphile



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Airplanes, F/M, MSR, Oregon - Freeform, Requiem, airport, xfwritingchallenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 06:19:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4993522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullyphile/pseuds/scullyphile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder and Scully go back to Oregon, and pick up a little something when they get there. Sweet and then sad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Souvenirs from Oregon

“Let’s go waste some money,” she said.  

The drive to her house was a blur of touching. She tried not to distract him too much from the road, but her hands needed contact with his shoulder, his arm, his thigh. He was driving faster than usual, occasionally weaving through traffic, which, thankfully, wasn’t very bad. 

Scully’s hand felt for her keys in her coat pocket and pulled them out. She stood facing the door, keys dangling. He was behind her, very close. Mulder’s hand slid from her lower back to her ass, and she nearly dropped the keys.

“Hey, let me get inside first.”

“This is your fault, you know, talking about spending Bureau money on something that will definitely get us both into a lot of trouble.” His lips brushed her ear as he spoke very quietly into it.

“You’ve made me into a real troublemaker.”

“That’s not true,” he said. “You were a rebel when I met you; you just hid it better.”

The door finally swung open and they ducked inside. Mulder’s long leg reached out, and his foot found the door, which swung shut with a slam. Scully tossed her keys, which hit the coffee table from several feet away and slid until they fell off the other side. Now he had her back against the wall by the door, and he took the hand that had just held her keys, entwined his fingers with hers, and pressed the back of her hand against the wall above her head.

“Couch?” he asked. She looked up at him, nodding in response. 

He led her over to it by the hand and gently pulled her down on top of him. A small smile formed on her lips, and he pulled her down so that he could kiss them. 

“We’re going back where it all started,” he said, when they took a breath. “Oregon, our first case.”

“I know. It would be almost romantic, if not for the abductions.”

“It still is,” he said. 

—

They boarded the plane and sat down, Mulder at the window, Scully in the aisle seat. He took her hand, and her head rested on his shoulder. She was so tired she slept the entire flight.

“Scully.”

“Hmm?”

“We landed. Time to get up.”

“Oh,” she said, as she realized where she was and how long she must have been asleep. “Did I drool on you?”

“Well, you slept the whole flight, so yeah. There’s a whole Rorschach Test on my shirt.”

She shoved his shoulder. 

“Shut up, Mulder. There is not!”

“Sure, OK. Get out of my way, Scully. I need to get our bags out of the overhead compartment.”

“I can get them,” she said, defiant, unmoving.

“As much as I would love to see you on your tiptoes, I think it will be easier if I just get them.”

Her eyes were trying to set him on fire, but she moved out into the aisle. He reached up and pulled down their bags with ease. He carried both bags off the plane without a word.

“Let’s stop in here,” he said, as they passed a shop on their way to pick up their rental car. 

They walked by racks of novels, magazines, postcards. He stopped at one full of fridge magnets. Her body had more momentum, and she drifted farther, toward a bin of stuffed animals, all about three inches long. Her eyes caught on the ones in the back. Little aliens looked up at her with large, dark eyes. They had green and gray. She picked up a gray one, and drifted stealthily around to the register as Mulder still spun the rack of magnets. She waited for him just outside the shop.

“What did you get me?” he asked.

“How’d you know I got you anything?”

“You disappeared, and now you’re standing out here with that grin on your face.”

“I always have this grin on my face now, Mulder. I told you; I’m fairly happy.”

“Give up the gift, G-Woman.”

“You first.”

“We trade. On three, two, one.”

There was a shuffling of plastic bags, a successful exchange. Scully pulled hers out, a simple fridge magnet in the shape of the state of Oregon. The background was white with a border in blue, and it said Oregon in the center. 

“I thought… something from Oregon. If, you know, you had a picture of some good looking people you needed to hang on your fridge, you could use this.”

“Thank you, Mulder,” she said, smiling. “Open yours.”

“It’s gray not green,” he said, holding the alien in his palm and smiling. The alien had a loop of string coming out of its head, and he planned to hang it from the rear view mirror of the rental car.

“Little gray men,” she said. “Now all he needs is a little baseball jersey.

—

Skinner came to the hospital when Scully was released and drove her home in near silence. It wasn’t awkward, just too full of emotion for words to feel welcome. As she opened her door to get out, he spoke.

"This was in the rental car,” he said, “in Oregon.” Skinner pressed the alien into the palm of her hand. Her eyes looked watery as she squeezed the alien in her fist.

“Thank you.”

In her apartment, she pulled the magnet from her coat pocket, her finger traced the raised border around the state of Oregon as she walked to the fridge. The magnet was strong when she tested it. She put the string from the alien behind the magnet and it held him there, his little alien hands and feet dangling in mid-air. 

Scully closed her eyes and willed her chin to stop quivering, but it didn’t work. She turned around, hand over her mouth, and leaned her back against the fridge. Her eyes closed, and she slid downward until she was sitting on the floor. She held her knees tightly to her chest as the sobs came.


End file.
